reticulated earrings

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Me:“Self, it’s
time you set your fear of rings aside and get with the program.”

Myself: “What program?”

Me:“The ring
business, what else?”

Myself: “Huh?”

You can see there was a bit of resistance.This meant, along with many other things,
that I was going to need to improve my sawing-a-straight-line skill.Rarely (ever?) have I been that girl who
blindly follows that “straight & narrow” path.Not that I’m inherently a risk taker by any
means, I just like to meander some and then make up my own mind.But the argument from me was
irresistible!So, okay, rings it will
be. The Meltdown, as they say, will DIVERSIFY.

Really, I have probably been working up to this my whole
life.I wear rings, several of them:
stacked, mismatched, matched, single, plain, special, you name it.I have had at least one ring on my hands
since I was old enough to get a prize—a fancy-schmancy genuine faux precious
metal ring—from the Dentist for being a good patient.Now, “good” here means frequent, so I
acquired quite a few of these glamorous accoutrements!

So today, I am cutting, filing, soldering, pounding,
stretching, pounding, annealing, sanding, pulling, swearing, pounding—not
necessarily in that order—so that you can be adorned too!The only difference is that your ring is made
by me from my favorite non-faux metals—silver and copper—and you don’t need
Novocain to secure the goods!

Stay with me, come by the Etsy shop in the next few weeks
because there will be new rings stocking the shelves.If you’re a local, please come by the Holiday
Pop Shop market over the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend, and/or my friend Barry
Perez’s Holiday Show in Elgin, Texas on the afternoon of Saturday, December 1st.
Check out the postcards on this page for
details.

Even if I don’t see or hear from you, have a safe and
thankful Thanksgiving!

I’ve got just the
place.Nestled between Write Now and
Heights Vinyl on White Oak is this delightful little secret:a clothing boutique like no other.La Camella is a clothing and accessory
shop, opened about a year ago by Houston native Camella Clements.

Camella,
proprietress and member of the local Bobbindoctrin Puppet Theatre troupe,
decided after a decade of working in academics that a change was in order.The shop was born of her love of fashion and
her need to expand her creative side beyond the classroom.

What will you find?

Shoes? Of
course!

Dresses, tops,
bags?YES!

Jeans?Indeed!

Fancy Schmancy
under things?Oui Oui

Jewelry?

So glad you
asked! Local artists, including
Maggie’s Meltdown are available here!

If you are
wandering around through the Heights and find yourself on White Oak for a bite
to eat, check the shop out.After all,
the holiday party season is just about upon us.Where better to find that special something than a truly unique
boutique?

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Thanks to my dear friend from my old
neighborhood, Rose, my work is now available at One Green STREET, on the SE corner of
White Oak and Cortlandt, here in the Heights!

One Green STREET

This shop is so cool and I am so
honored to be a part of it.Sherry
Eichberger started the shop from a vision of eco-friendly products in a
neighborhood-friendly space.Some of you
might remember Margarete Sanchez’ Artful Corner—that’s the space, now a LEED
certified building divided into quadrants, each devoted to a different part of
the whole body.They have a variety of
organic and natural products to enhance life.These rooms house home goods, makeup & beauty products, locally
mixed and marketed tea from the Path of Tea, clothing, handbags, and of course,
handmade jewelry.And they are a
community-minded bunch too, with a Friday afternoon (4-6pm) Front Porch
“wind-down-from-the-week” party, a book group, a Friday food truck and several
green-living related talks a month.

Everyone, let’s support this excellent
concept and the good people who have brought it to our neighborhood!Oh, and pick up some jewelry from Maggie’s
Meltdown while you’re there!

Monday, September 10, 2012

Two weeks ago, I tortured myself, as I do every year.I spent a whole day at a relentlessly tedious seminar to renew my certification for a job I hope I never have to do again.For a day I pretended to listen to speakers who warned of various civic dangers, like failing to pick up dog poop (apparently, unpleasant odors!) and restaurants serving ill-gotten oysters (did you know oysters could be procured by shooting them with a 22?).Anyway, it promised to be a wasted day, but, in the words of my practical dad, “you should always have something to fall back on, in case this foolishness does not work out.”So I went.

Domino Effect earrings

Now you know what these things are like:all-you-can-eat Sam’s Club banana nut muffins, the desperate run on giant percolators of god-awful coffee, the lunch buffet (oh joy…taquitos and a side of raw broccoli with ranch dressing), the butt numbness, the afternoon head-bobbing, the dreadful networking, and of course, hours of mindless doodling disguised as note-taking.

Fortunately, the hours of mindless doodling paid off.

The culmination of the week came Saturday night at a party when the realization that I goofed when I set up the Facebook page struck terror in me.What was I thinking?I set up my BUSINESS as a PERSON!EVERYONE knows a BUSINESS is NOT a PERSON!!Sheesh!!Anyway, trying to correct such a mistake after the fact is not the breeze you might think.A flurry of postings ensued asking people to forgive my ineptness, to “LIKE” my new page, and send money to my new Super Pac.

Diversion earrings

Today begins a new week in the Meltdown studio and I am anticipating a good one.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

How did I spend my summer, you ask?Soldering and sweating, I answer.It’s all about heat, baby!When I’m not behind a torch, I’m in front of a fan, trying to ward off either the honest hard-earned sweat of work, or the devious annoying sweat of a hot flash.Torch, fan, torch.Repeat.

Early in the season, maybe even in the spring, I took a class in texturing metal.It was great fun, even though from the moment I registered, I felt like an imposter, a sham, a pretender, a massive loathsome blob in the cozy glorious world of real metalsmiths.In fact, I absconded with a few secrets.

For the a process called Shibuichi (hold the wasabi), we melted down scraps of copper and fine silver in a small crucible to make one big scrap. Already an exciting development, but it gets better; then I found out that if you heat silver to a point just before it liquefies you can break it into these fantastic jagged edged pieces.By soldering those jagged pieces together you can make something really interesting.

Shibuichi (with Wasabi)

Well, you can make something really interesting.The process was so cool and simple and inspiring and awesome that I had to put it on the back burner.Instead, I have been trying like a melting fool to become a “master” solderer.

Django Jingles Necklace

Nestled Necklace

Yeah, well, don’t call me Master just yet.Yesterday was a soldering bust.Nothing I touched with a flame worked the way I wanted it to.I’d been boldly bonding all summer and suddenly I had to pay some unforeseen toll—the toll of abrupt inexplicable incompetence.At least this time it did not involve lighting my arm on fire.

New hand wrought clasps

But the nice thing about life is that today is a whole new day.With new energy and enthusiasm, and a shimmer of fresh sweat, here’s what I am working on today.

Today's experiments are tomorrow's treasures!

And before you go, don't forget to check out the new work in both the ETSY shop (just click on the picture of the door) and behind the Gallery door. Leave the door cracked and the light on, somebody else will probably stop by. Try to stay cool and thanks for coming by.

Gallery Door

Who, Me?

Still workin' on it...

I was born in Colorado, "grown" on a dairy farm in New York, and woke up one morning some years ago to find myself in Texas. You should see my boot collection! Having forsaken the Lone Star state most recently, I am calling the forested hills of Northeastern California home now.

Maggie's Meltdown is the metal work business I started after "retiring" from a full time job in pursuit of the mythical freedom of self-employment. Hopefully, this blog will offer a humorous chronicle on making that business fly, meltdowns and all!

My Etsy shop is up and running, behind the Etsy Door on the right. Pics of metal work are posted here as well, behind the Gallery Door. AND you can find me on Facebook. Yes!, click on the Facebook Door to link there. (I know, I know, I've thought of everything!) You can also click on the pictures of new work and go right to the Etsy shop! No kidding!

Thanks for checking in! Hope to see you soon (and make sure you're wearing a Maggie's original in case I do)!